The Cowichan Valley Performing Arts Foundation has awarded $5,600 in bursaries to 13 young Cowichan Valley performers.
Formed with the idea of assisting kids who can’t afford classes, these bursaries were awarded to the fall intake applications requesting funding for acting camp, and dance programs at Barre None, Celtic Rhythm Dancers, Carlson’s Dance and Adage Studio, along with music lessons with Garth Williams and Ann Mendenhall.
During this intake period, more than $9,300 was requested by Valley applicants and each request was carefully reviewed by the bursary committee.
The review panel will next turn their attention to applications for spring classes, reviewing requests on Dec. 15 for spring, 2017 sessions.
Since the CVPAF’s AGM in September, 2015, the foundation has received requests in excess of $20,000 but were only able to award just over $11,500 in bursaries and scholarships: 56 per cent of the total requests.
The funding for these scholarships and bursaries is accumulated from municipal grants and fundraising efforts from the volunteer-based foundation.
This year the foundation is hoping to increase that assistance thanks to the generosity of additional funding received from Peninsula Co-op, a fundraising concert at Unsworth Vineyards and proceeds from the “Big Raffle”, which was part of the Downtown Duncan Day celebration this past summer.
Supporters of helping students pay for classes can visit www.cvperformingarts.ca and click on the Donate Now button to contribute.
